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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26497276">the gooey center</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/calcliffbas/pseuds/calcliffbas'>calcliffbas</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Elements 101 [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Avatar: The Last Airbender</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Developing Friendships, Friendship, Gen, Post-Episode: s03e13 Firebending Masters, Pre-Episode: s03e14-15 The Boiling Rock, Stubborn Katara (Avatar), Western Air Temple</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-09-16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-09-16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 12:22:25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,251</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26497276</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/calcliffbas/pseuds/calcliffbas</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>“Hey, Hotman,” he says.<br/>“Don’t call me that,” Zuko says.<br/>Aang pouts. <i> Boring</i>.</p><p>Aang likes fruit pies, he likes his friends, and he quite likes his firebending <i> sifu </i> too. This Avatar stuff is pretty cool, too.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Aang &amp; Katara (Avatar), Aang &amp; Zuko (Avatar)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Elements 101 [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1926430</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>8</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>299</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>the gooey center</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Aang is having a pretty good time passing water back and forth with Katara when she stiffens and drops the water with a splash.</p><p>“<em>What</em>,” she hisses, “Are <em>you</em> doing here?”</p><p>Aang spins around with a twist that sends out a medium-sized breath of air, immediately thinking that <em>someone’s</em> after them.</p><p>But it’s Zuko, and whilst that would have been cause for concern a few months ago, Aang’s quick to relax and wave a hand at his firebending teacher.</p><p>“Hey, Hotman,” he says.</p><p>“Don’t call me that,” Zuko says.</p><p>Aang pouts. <em>Boring</em>.</p><p>“Don’t talk to him,” Katara snaps. “<em>I</em> asked you a question. What are you doing here?”</p><p>Zuko takes half a step back, before stepping forward again and squaring his shoulders. Aang saw Sokka do the same thing before they rode the mail chutes at Omashu.</p><p>“I was, uh, wondering if I could sit in on your lesson?” Zuko shifts on his feet. “And watch what you were doing?”</p><p>“Absolutely not,” Katara says at once. “I’m not letting you <em>take notes</em> on him. What, are you trying to see what you’ll need to come up with counters for, to beat him?”</p><p>Katara is suspicious, but Aang’s feeling a lot better about <em>Sifu</em> Hotman since their trip to see the Sun Warriors. He’d had the chance to get the drop on Aang and take him back to the Fire Nation, and instead, he’d taken him to see <em>dragons</em>.</p><p>Elephant koi were cool, but dragons were <em>way</em> cooler than elephant koi!</p><p>They hadn’t let him ride them, but still. <em>Dragons!</em></p><p>Besides, Aang thinks it’s a bit weird for Katara to be this protective <em>now</em> when she had literally packed him lunch and sent him off on Appa with Zuko. It would have been nice to have something to eat in Fire Nation prison, sure, but he thinks if Zuko <em>had</em> turned out to be a bad guy, it would have been kind of hard to defend himself with a <em>sandwich</em>.</p><p>And Zuko’s actually not that bad a guy. He’s a little awkward, and he’s a bit rough around the edges sometimes, sure. But he’s not <em>bad</em>. He’s good now.</p><p>And he’s not a bad teacher, either. He’s as demanding as Toph, maybe even more so, and maybe that’s from personal experience (but Aang tries pretty hard not to think about <em>that</em>), but he’s as quick to help Aang get his head around the difficult forms as Katara, and he always makes sure to let Aang know when he’s done something impressive.</p><p>He also remembers that when Katara’s sat in on their firebending lessons, Zuko didn’t make a fuss about it.</p><p>“I promise I won’t make any trouble,” Zuko says, ignoring Katara’s scoff of disbelief. “It’s just that Uncle Iroh, uh. He said it was important to try and gain wisdom from different sources. So I was wondering if I could try and get wisdom from you guys when you waterbend.”</p><p>Aang perks up at that. From what Zuko’s said about his uncle, he seemed like a pretty good guy. And, like he said earlier, Zuko’s not a <em>bad</em> teacher, even if he says it’s just what his uncle taught him.</p><p>And even though Zuko seems pretty sad about how his uncle isn’t with them now, he keeps talking about how he should have listened more to Uncle when he <em>was</em> around. He tries to cover it up with hot squats and fire fists, but Aang can tell Zuko <em>cares</em>. He can tell he misses his uncle.</p><p>So maybe this is one of his uncle’s teaching that’s stuck with Zuko. Aang knows that sometimes, when your masters aren’t around, one of the ways you can still hear the sound of their voice is by remembering what they taught you.</p><p>He remembers that the true secret to a good fruit pie is in the gooey centre.</p><p>So maybe that’s why he turns back to Katara. “I mean, he <em>did</em> help at the North Pole.”</p><p>“Actually, Aang, I think he tried to kidnap you at the North Pole,” Katara replies. That scowl is back on Zuko.</p><p><em>Oops</em>. Aang scratches his head and smiles sheepishly at Zuko, who looks a little embarrassed.</p><p>“I, uh, think he was talking about my uncle, actually. But, yeah. Sorry about that, again. So, can I sit in?”</p><p>“If you think you can learn something from Water Tribe peasants,” Katara sneers.</p><p>“Well, Uncle Iroh learnt to redirect lightning by studying waterbenders,” Zuko answers her. “So I guess there’s always something to learn.”</p><p>“Really?” Aang perks up. He tries not to think too much about the way Azula had brought him down in Ba Sing Se – because that way of thinking leads to thinking about how he’s been locked out of the Avatar State, and <em>nope not going there, we’re fine! We’re great! Everything’s great!</em></p><p>But…</p><p>But lightning is still something that he struggles with – it’s <em>dangerous</em> and he doesn’t <em>like</em> it, so learning how to deal with it sounds <em>great</em>.</p><p>And as much as their trip to the Sun Warriors helped, Aang thinks Zuko still knows that he’s not <em>quite</em> comfortable with firebending yet. So if he can learn how to bend – or at least to <em>counter</em> – lightning with <em>waterbending?</em></p><p>That makes Aang feel a lot better about his chances.</p><p>Besides, Zuko’s a pretty okay guy underneath it all, and this idea of a firebender learning from waterbenders? It sounds a lot like a hundred years ago, when he and Bumi and Kuzon had made a cool glass sculpture. Bumi had broken down the earth into really fine sand particles, and Aang and brought a gust of wind to spiral it up, and then Kuzon had fired the sand into glass.</p><p>Now it’s a hundred years later, and Aang’s tried fruit pies in the Earth Kingdom, in Ba Sing Se, and in the Fire Nation, but they’re all sort of <em>off</em>¸ somehow.</p><p>Toph had once complained about the pastries the cooks had made at her home in Gaoling, and then Zuko had talked about this time his Mom had snuck fruit tarts into the palace for him and Azula, and they’d eaten so many a six-year-old Zuko had gotten sick and thrown up behind the curtain in the Fire Lord’s throne room.</p><p>They’d spent the rest of the afternoon talking about their most embarrassing childhood memories. Apparently, Azula had loved tripping Zuko up on state occasions and making him fall over.</p><p>Toph had said Azula sounded like a dick, and Zuko had sort of shrugged.</p><p>“Zhao’s a dick,” he had said. “Azula’s just… complicated.”</p><p>But he had had a fond smile on his face as he’d said it.</p><p>So, Aang figures. <em>So</em>. He knows Katara thinks she’s got Zuko figured out. But he also thinks <em>he’s</em> got Zuko sussed out. But whilst Katara seems pretty comfortable telling Zuko <em>exactly</em> what she thinks of him, Aang thinks it’s better that he keeps his suspicions of what Zuko’s true self looks like to himself.</p><p>See, even though the older boy tries to hide it, he thinks Zuko’s got a gooey centre.</p><p>“Come and sit down, pupil Zuko,” he says. “You’re very lucky to have the privilege of learning from two such excellent waterbending masters as <em>Sifu</em> Katara and myself.”</p><p>So he smiles at Zuko, and Zuko smiles back, and Katara huffs but she doesn’t stop Zuko sitting down in the corner of the room as they practice.</p><p>Aang wonders what Zuko's favourite fruit is, and whether anyone's tried making it into a pie.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Dedicated to Damien.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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